You have a control lever on the left hand side (as you sit on the bike) of the fuel tank. It switches between three positions. On, Reserve, and Off. In the Off position, fuel cannot flow from the tank to the carburetors. The On and Reserve position both allow fuel to flow, but the On position pulls from an elevated position inside the tank. Because of this, when the fuel goes below that position (leaving approx. .7 gallons in the tank), the bike will sputter and eventually die. As soon as you notice any sputtering, switch the lever to Reserve. You now know that you have a minimal amount of fuel remaining to get you to a gas station. When you fill up, flip the lever back to the normal On position so you'll have the same warning next time.

You should practice flipping the lever while riding so it's a procedure you're comfortable performing.

Thanks for the tip. I was definitely not aware of what that "reserve" position did on the fuel control lever. I'm finding it interesting you said your 99 Rebel 250 does 110M per tank. Here in Canada I rode about 130 M on my 1985, without switching to the 'Reserve' position. I'm surprised because your bike is very likely in much better shape than my 25 years old - 7 previous owners Rebel 250. I only use the more expensive 95 octane gas, could that be the reason?

Octane does not affect milage. The Rebel needs 87. Anything more just soothes the mind and lightens the wallet.
My local Bp "runs out" of regular about once a month. I throw 91 in then but grumbel a bit about the price difference.
No milage change, no running change and no maintenance change, just a lighter pocket when pulling out!

Mines an '87 that I bought new. I tend to get 120 to 130 miles before needing reserve. I just like to fill up at 110 or so.

That reserve thing really comes in handy when you aren't paying attention to the miles. The hard part to remember is putting it back to ON after you fill up.
Use 87 octane only. Our Rebels actually run worse on anything higher because higher octane fuel burns slower.

That reserve thing really comes in handy when you aren't paying attention to the miles. The hard part to remember is putting it back to ON after you fill up.

One additional bit of information is that you should turn the petcock to OFF when you're shutting the Rebel off for the day. I usually turned it to OFF even a half-block or so before home. That way the Rebel doesn't sit with fuel pressure on the carb. Of course, doing it this way, the hard part to remember is putting it back to ON when you're starting out the next day.

Automatic reserve would kind of defeat the purpose wouldn't it? Then it would run out of gas for the second and final time without letting you know about the FIRST time. If you are in the habit (as you should be) of switching fuel OFF every time you shut down, and ON again every time you start, you should have no difficulty reaching down there and flipping to reserve before you slow down too much when the engine quits..

I never got an owners manual to it. I guess I should invest in one. I only got about 110 mpgs because I was flipping the petcock from reserve to on back and forth not knowing there was a differnce. That had to mess with the milage. I havent been able to run it into reserve yet since I have learned the differnce. I run 91 octane in it. So I should not do that? I know when I went on an hour long trip I filled it up when I was at 92 miles because there were few gas stations between me and my destination, and It only held 1.5 gallons. I still had 1.2 gallons left, Including reserve. So I should be getting around 180 mpgs. Does that sound right

That would be just over 61 mpg.
You can figure mpg any time you fill up.
Miles traveled (92) divided by fuel added (1.5) equals mpg (61.3333).

Seems about right.

Using any octane higher than what the manufacturer recommends just means you pay more than you have to. Most folks don't realize that octane is a measurement of how resistant fuel is to autoignition under compression not how much energy is in it. The reason high performance engines need higher octane fuel is so the fuel won't ignite prematurely during the intake cycle because of increased compression and shorter timing (ignition) cycles.

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